HöfenvsholeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Höfen is a name, hole is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Höfen” is a name and “hole” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,932
“Höfen” frequency rank
#7,486
“hole” frequency rank
26418
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Höfen hole
Definition Gemeinde in Tirol (Österreich) 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs holen

Where the eye mixes Höfen and hole

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Höfen runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against hole's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Höfen
4 ch
hole

Visual trap between Höfen and hole

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Höfen is [ˈhøːfn̩] while hole is [ˈhoːlə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26418, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Höfen is recorded at frequency rank #18,932, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈhøːfn̩]. hole is at rank #7,486, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhoːlə].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 26418, this pair ranks #1,818,423 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Höfen vs hole

Shared letters: eh. Private to "Höfen": fnö. Private to "hole": lo.

"Höfen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hole ← hhole · hloe · hoel · holle · ohle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Höfen" for "hole" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Höfen" is a name and "hole" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Höfen" or "hole" show up more?
"hole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,486 in our German list, against #18,932 for "Höfen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Höfen" and "hole" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Höfen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,818,423 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Höfen" and "hole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Höfen vs Hörern". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,818,423 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list